Inmates in solitary confinement 7 times more likely to harm themselves: Study

Updated on: February 13, 2014 / 10:04 AM
/ AP

NEW YORK -- A first-of-its-kind study found that New York
City jail inmates sent to solitary confinement are nearly seven times more
likely to try to hurt or kill themselves than those never assigned to it.

The peer-reviewed study, published Wednesday by the American
Journal of Public Health, provides empirical evidence of a strong association
between self-harm and the place inmates and staff call "the bing." It
also backs an argument that advocates and others have long used to criticize a
practice that they say is inhumane.

Federal gov. reviewing solitary confinement"We've always tracked all acts of self-harm but what we
didn't know was, 'What are the variables associated with that self-harm?'"
said Dr. Homer Venters, an assistant health commissioner who heads health
services for the city's jails and was one of the study's main authors. "We
do see that solitary confinement itself is a predictor of self-harm."

The study examined 244,699 incarcerations in the city's jail
system between January 2010 and January 2013 and found that there were 2,182
acts of self-harm, 103 of them potentially fatal. While 7.3 percent of
incarcerations included a stint in solitary confinement, 53.3 percent of
self-harm acts - and 45 percent of potentially fatal ones - happened there, the
research revealed.

The study concluded that inmates assigned to solitary were
6.9 times as likely to harm themselves, even after controlling for variables
such as length of jail stay, race and serious mental illness. Inmates who are
18 years old or younger and are diagnosed with serious mental illness accounted
for the majority of the self-harm acts, the study found. And many inmates hurt
themselves in an effort to avoid time in solitary, earning them the nickname
"bing-beaters" by correctional staff, the study found.

New York City's Department of Correction has taken steps in
recent months to limit the use of solitary as a punishment, but it can still be
doled out punitively when inmates break certain rules, seriously assault
someone or attempt to hurt themselves. It also can be used to isolate unruly inmates
and as a form of protective custody.

Suicide is the most common cause of death in U.S. jails,
according to the Department of Justice, accounting for 35 percent of the 885
inmate deaths in 2011, the most recent year for which data was available. There
were three suicides in city jails last year, according to the city Department
of Correction.

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acts such as cutting skin with plastic utensils to cause bleeding to
potentially fatal acts such as ingesting toxins or tying something around their
necks, Venters said. Other acts included banging their heads against the wall
and setting cells on fire.

Some inmates harm themselves while in solitary in an attempt
to get out, as did one who stuck a deodorant canister so far into his rectum
that it had to be surgically removed, the study found.

Inmates who harm themselves also affect a jail's finances,
the study found, with every 100 acts resulting in about 3,760 hours of
additional time for corrections officers who must take them to hospitals and
provide 24-hour suicide watch.

Solitary cells are generally about 6 feet by 8 feet, with
metal or cinderblock walls containing a bed and combined toilet and sink. The
cells are closed off by a large, solid metal sliding door that sometimes has a
small panel for inmates to look out and a slot through which inmates are
handcuffed and delivered meals.

Dr. Ernest Drucker, a Columbia University epidemiologist who
was one of the peer reviewers, called the study the "largest, most
comprehensive" look at the use of solitary that he was aware of.

He said the research says "something meaningful about
what happens to individuals in large numbers in a system that's ostensibly
meant to hold them in detention while due process goes forward but in fact
places them in more danger."

Some advocates have called for the abolishment of the use of
solitary as a punishment, and lawsuits challenging the use of prolonged
solitary confinement have been filed in California and elsewhere.

Alexis Agathocleous, a senior staff attorney at the Center
for Constitutional Rights, represents inmates in solitary in California state
prison.

"I think what this study and the other studies about
solitary are pointing to is a growing understanding that this practice has a
devastating toll on prisoners and does not comport with basic standards of
decency," he said. "The social science is quite clear: Even in short
periods, solitary confinement can have a significant effect on a person's
psychological well-being ... and poses a serious problem from a human rights
perspective."

On Rikers Island, a 10-facility lockup on a 400-acre island
in the East River that houses the majority of city inmates, officials in
December eliminated the use of solitary for seriously mentally ill inmates.
Schizophrenic, bipolar and other seriously mentally ill inmates instead get
assigned to two new dormitory-style units called Clinical Alternative to
Punitive Segregation.

"In recent years the Department of Correction has taken
many steps to minimize its use of punitive segregation," a department
spokesman said in a statement, adding that it will continue to "explore
alternatives and modifications to punitive segregation that do not compromise
the safety of inmates, staff and visitors."

The Board of Correction, which has an oversight role over
the department, has begun the lengthy process of changing city laws governing
how solitary is used for the seriously mentally ill and adolescent inmates.